This week, Eric Gau sits down with Council of Agriculture Department of International Affairs Director-General Hung Chung-hsiu to discuss the importance of agricultural cooperation under the central government’s New Southbound Policy.
Transcript:
Eric Gau: Good morning everyone, and welcome back to Looking South, ICRT’s exclusive look at the central government’s New Southbound Policy. I’m Eric Gau, and with me on the air today is Director-General Hung Chung-hsiu of the Council of Agriculture’s Department of International Affairs. Director-general, welcome to the show.
Hung Chung-hsiu: Thank you.
Eric: Director-general, just to start us off, what role does agriculture play in the New Southbound Policy?
Chung-hsiu: In my personal opinion, I think agriculture always plays a very important role in the New Southbound Policy. Agriculture always is a very important element to this policy. I think Taiwan has rich experience in almost every stage of agricultural development, so we can share this experience with Southbound countries.
Eric: What can Taiwan share with other countries in Southeast Asia, and what can it learn from those countries in turn, when it comes to agriculture?
Chung-hsiu: Most of the New Southbound countries have similar weather conditions and agricultural products to Taiwan. So we export many high-quality agricultural products to those countries, such as tuna, flour, and processed foods. I think Taiwan’s agricultural exports highly depend on the markets of mainland China and the USA and Japan, so we can create new markets from these countries.
Eric: Could you tell us what agricultural cooperation or exchange projects has Taiwan been conducting with these countries? How have these projects grown since the policy was implemented two years ago?
Chung-hsiu: I would like to share one example, which is the Taiwan-Indonesia Agriculture Demonstration. I think that is a good example, because we share our cultivar and processing technology and marketing systems with that country.
Eric: What benefits have these cooperation projects brought both to people here in Taiwan, and to people in our regional neighbors?
Chung-hsiu: Let me give one example of cooperation between the Council of Agriculture and Taiwan International Cooperation and Development Fund. In the north of Thailand, we wish to make a contribution to developing the much-needed science and technology for global society so we can cooperate with ITCDF and IRRI, International Rice Research Institute, to create sustainable and long-term businesses and look for more partners.
Eric: How would you like to see agricultural cooperation expand in the future, to further boost international interaction and exchanges between Taiwan and our partner countries in Southeast Asia?
Chung-hsiu: For Taiwan and its New Southbound partner countries, agricultural development and farmers’ welfare are significantly important. That is why we conduct projects to exchange experience in many areas of agriculture. We believe that through agricultural cooperation, agricultural and trade relationship between Taiwan and New Southbound partners will be further enhanced.
Eric: Director-general, before we go, do you have any final thoughts you’d like to share with our listeners?
Chung-hsiu: Agriculture is very important, and it can be the fountain to the people. Maybe we can keep cooperating with Southeast countries and we enhance farmers’ income and we enhance and improve the living standard. That is our goal.
Eric: We’ve been speaking with COA Department of International Affairs Director-general Hong Zhong-xiu. Mr. Hong, thank you for taking the time to share with us today.
Chung-hsiu: Thank you.
Eric: That’s it for today’s installment of Looking South. For this and past episodes of the series, go to the podcast section of the ICRT Web site, or search for the Looking South blog. I’m Eric Gau, and we’ll see you here again next week.